Nifty races towards 7700; ITC, Infosys, BHEL laggards

11:55 am Market outlook: Jeff Chowdhry, Head for Emerging Markets Equities at F&C Asset Management, sees more money shifting to the Chinese stock market in the days ahead.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Chowdhry says he is bullish on Chinese equities at current levels. He says emerging markets in general will find it tough to trend higher because of the geopolitical risks weighing on global markets.

Chowdhry expects interest rates in the US to rise in the next 12 months.

On India, Chowdhry says the the recent Union Budget was a tad disappointing and that policy decisions will take time to come through. He is positive on the auto sector, and in particular on Tata Motors, which is expected to log strong JLR sales in US and China.

11:40 am Poll: According to CNBC-TV18 poll, the June Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is expected to come around 5.8 percent with an expectation of an upside toward 6 percent. This time around IIP is expected to contribute quite handsomely to the Q1 GDP data considering that April-May saw positive IIP growth, which is expected to continue for June as well.

The core sector data for the month of June came in at a nine-month high, which too will be a positive contribution. Last month was the first month of IIP data, where it actually surpassed the core sector growth but that may not happen this time around because the core sector growth was good in terms of percentage growth.

As per the poll, the July CPI is expected to see an uptick to 7.6 percent for July as compared to that 29 month low that it came in June which was 7.31 percent. The key contributor for the CPI data will obviously be the vegetable prices. The mandi prices of key commodities like tomatoes, potatoes which are the key commodities have gone up 30 percent on a month-on-month basis, due to deficient rainfall and supply shortfall.

11:20 am Interview: Siddharth Lal, MD and CEO, Eicher Motors says despite the growth in net profit, commercial vehicle sales continues to be weak, though the pace of decline in sales is slowing down. However, he adds that the company has gained market share in 5-14 tonne CVs to 32 percent. Also, on the brighter side, the company saw exceptionally good performance in the bus segment.

“The bus segment is doing well, market share improved to 19 percent,” says Lal. The company saw exceptional performance in exports in the June quarter. It grew 252 percent year-on-year.

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Buying continues in the market as Nifty tries to test 7700. The 50-share index is up 43.15 points at 7669.10 while the Sensex is up 171.23 points at 25690.47. About 1323 shares have advanced, 932 shares declined, and 107 shares are unchanged.

Tata Motors is up 6 percent, while GAIL, ONGC, HDFC and Sun Pharma are top gainers in the Sensex. Among the losers are Bharti, M&M, BHEL, ITC and Infosys.

Asian shares nudged higher on Tuesday, tracking rallies in the United States and Europe as investors seemed to put aside geopolitical concerns, at least for the moment. The better mood came even though NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen warned of a “high probability” that Russia, using the guise of a humanitarian mission, could intervene militarily in Ukraine.

Ukraine has also said that, contrary to Russian reports of de-escalating, Russia has massed 45,000 troops on its border. Investors also monitored Iraq, where the United States recently began air strikes targeting Islamic State fighters marching on the country’s Kurdish capital.